Issue #43 - Bringing people with you

There’s no point in doing great design if you don’t bring people along the process with you. That’s been one of the key things I’ve worked towards over the past couple of years.

Businesses are still setup to see the final design. The process leading to that looked waterfall. Now, in my experience, businesses are understanding the value of prototyping, usability testing and quite simply, understanding that design is a process, not the final product.

Digital Arts interviews Andy Budd, the Brighton-based managing director of Clearleft. In the video, Andy discusses what UX really means – when the term is often used broadly for anything from UI to service design.

“In 2012, IBM, the 105-year old information technology company, set out a bold vision: To flood its ranks with hundreds of designers and train its entire workforce—some 377,000 employees worldwide—to think, work, feel like designers. Like it did 60 years ago.” I think now we’re starting to see the fruits of their labour, but I’m really interested to see what will come next.

“The idea behind Incremental UX is to design iterations of a component, that can be developed one after the other.” Joel Ritmeyer, a UX Consultant in London takes us through the process. Also, “the first iteration is enough to get the job done with each iteration after improving usability and increasing functionality.” Great takeaways for any design team looking to continuously improve.

Soigneur got in touch with the user-centered design specialist Laurens Boex, and sent him off to learn more about the German bike maker. TL:DR: “Canyon went from being a brand that was mostly focused on improving its bikes to one that was focused on clients.” Might sound simple, but drove a big difference in how Canyon operate today.

“There is no section on site or in app that is more critical for conversion than the product page. The ability to see and understand product information easily is critical to users when they’re making a product decision.”

“For me, a great designer has the ability to create their own visual language but remain flexible and understanding when it comes to working with a client. Design should hopefully make the world a better place and the relationship between the designer and people, most immediately the client, is vital in producing something of use and value.”